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“You don’t do a documentary with a guy who wins nothing,” parps José Mourinho during the trailer for his shiny, new Netflix film, although since 2017, his sole piece of silverware is the 2021-22 Tin Pot with Roma. And while his failure to win anything with Tottenham, Fenerbahce or Benfica didn’t exactly – on paper, at least – make him the most obvious candidate as the author of that opening quote, neither does he immediately feel like the best man to put Florentino Pérez’s Death Star back on course in Madrid.
Having boycotted the Geopolitics World Cup due to my dislike of Fifa, Infantino, Trump, etc and therefore having nothing to write about, I’m now ready to pick up my quill and parchment once more. Even allowing for my team, Hearts’, disjointed recent hire and exits, I do think we have had incredibly bad luck in all our European draws. First it was Sturm Graz, now Benfica, and next, in Tin Pot, it seems likely we’ll get Rapid Vienna. I’ve actually heard of every one of these teams. Why couldn’t we have got some other made-up team from an even worse league than the Scottish Premiership? Or is getting out of Europe before the end of August the only thing that might help us in the league?” – Ken Muir.
I enjoyed the link to the Rivaldo article from 2002 (Friday’s Football Daily). It came complete with the quaint idea that a Serie A giant with Big Cup football could offer more wages than Spurs. Anyone under 30 would find the idea laughable” – Dave Lambley.
How beautiful St James’ Park was (Friday’s Memory Lane, full email edition). It really did remind me of the old Luigi Ferraris, where I spent nearly every Sunday in the early 80s. My mate was supporting the cyclists (Sampdoria) and me, of course, Genoa … we were taking each other to the home matches. I only went once to the one rebuilt for Italia 90 and found it so ugly and soulless. Some background in one of the local TV archives” – Giuseppe.
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